George WeigelA couple of seedling flats under George's basement seed-light system.Q: We’re getting ready to start our vegetable seedlings, and this year we thought we’d use plant lights. We’ve grown seedlings next to a window, but they get pretty leggy.

Can we use shop lights? Do we have to set up a stand in the dining room or can we put it in the dark basement since we’ll be using lights anyway? Can we use the shop-light frame and get plant-light bulbs? Do we even need special plant lights, and if so, can we buy them locally?

A: You’ll definitely get better results from artificial lighting. Very few house windows give enough light to prevent seedlings from getting leggy. The warm temperatures in the house also encourage legginess because the plants grow like its May but without the light to support that growth rate.

I’ve had wonderful success for years starting my vegetables under ordinary fluorescent tubes in ordinary work-shop lights in my totally dark basement. I use one cool-white and one warm-white tube in each fixture to get a slightly more sun-like spectrum.

I also rigged up a timer so the lights come on automatically each morning and stay lit for 14 hours a day, then turn off. I hang my lights from chains so I can keep the lights just a few inches above the seedlings and adjust them upward as the plants grow.

Between this decent light and the cooler temperatures in my basement (around 55 to 58 degrees), I get stocky growth. I add just a little balanced fertilizer to the water (not even quarter strength) and add water to the growing trays instead of sprinkling from over top. The soil soaks up the water from below.

You’ll get even better results from plant lights, which are even more closely matched to the sun’s spectrum. The down side is that they’re pretty expensive. I’ve got just one of those that I use for overwintering a few tropicals that I take cuttings from each winter. You can insert those tubes into shop-light frames, so long as you make sure you buy the right size.

Regular fluorescent lights don’t supply good enough light for tropicals and more mature plants, but young seedlings do reasonably well under them. They’re only going to be there for maybe 6 weeks or so, then it’s time to harden off the plants for the garden.

Time your starts by counting backward from when it’s time to plant outside. Allow a week or two for the seeds to germinate, about 6 weeks to grow and 7 to 10 days to gradually acclimate to outside.

I know Highland Gardens in Lower Allen Twp. regularly carries plant lights, and I’ve seen them occasionally at other garden centers and sometimes even box stores.